The Greek Diminutive Suffix -loxo- -loxjj-. 143 



ings, in as much as the Slavic words are neuters, while the Greek 

 ones follow the gender of their primitives. 



4. In order to determine the relation of these widely divergent 

 uses it will be necessary to come to an understanding as to the 

 origin of -isko-, and then we may draw conclusions as to the 

 earliest stratum of usages. We may divide the various attempts 

 to solve this problem into two groups. In the first place some 

 earlier scholars, recognizing the fact that the designation of likeness 

 was the principal characteristic of -isko-, and that the ' diminutive ' 

 meanings could easily be developed from this, sought to find some 

 word suggesting the meaning ' like ' from which the suffix could 

 have arisen. Pott, Etym. Forsch. 2. 881, and Benfey, W. L. 1. 

 235, suggested the Skt. root iks ' to see' ' to view' as its origin, 

 though the short i of the suffix as opposed to the long one of 

 Iks ^ would now be regarded as definitely disposing of that deri- 

 vation. The further comparison of Gr. clxw,- which had a di- 

 gamma, will moreover harmonize neither with the suffix -isko- nor 

 the Skt. Iks, and tiKco and the latter furthermore disagree in 

 their vocalism, since iks is a reduplicative formation to the root 

 aks^ which appears only with o as root-vowel, while the Greek 

 word belongs to the vowel series i/ei/oi. Somewhat similar is 

 the statement of Schweizer, KZ. 3. 383 : " das gr. -i(7xo?, auch 

 -C)(o? ist samt den iibrigen oder abgetrennt von ihnen als verbal 

 * darin sehend, ahnlich' zu erklaren, und mit inchoativem -(t/m 

 auf Skt. aksh zuriickzufiihren." The i for Skt. a, however, would 

 make this as impossible as the comparison of -iks. 



5. According to Bopp, Vgl. Gr. § 952, who is followed by 

 Schwabe, De Dim. Grace, et Lat. 50, -isko- is a simple suffix and 

 the s is added for euphony's sake. This theory, of course, now- 

 adays scarcely requires mention, since we are not so ready as Bopp 

 to assume euphonic insertions without knowing their cause or origin 

 For phonetic reasons also Vondrak's derivation of Slav, -isko-, Vgl. SI 

 Gr. I. 468 f., is to be discountenanced. He assumes that it is a con 

 glutination of -isto- (with original long T) and -ko-, i. e. < -ist-ko- 

 We would not, however, expect the o of -isto- to be dropped be 

 fore a consonant. Moreover, Vondrak takes the -isto- to mean 



1 What Benfey, op. cit. 234 f., has to say concerning the relation of the 

 quantities, is admittedly a mere conjecture. 



2 Really two series of words are here confounded : eixco ' I yield ' and 

 CixoV ' image ' koixa ' I am like .' The latter were of course in mind. 

 Cf Prellwitz s. v. elxo) and sixoov. 



* Cf. Uhlenbeck, Etym. Worterb. s. v. iksate. 



